Paul R. Baier

2008-2009 Biography

Professor Baier, an editor of Harvard Legal Commentary while at Harvard Law School, joined the LSU Law faculty in 1972 after teaching at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Tennessee College of Law. The Judicial Fellows Commission selected Professor Baier from ten finalists to serve as the U.S. Supreme Court Fellow for 1975-76, during which time he scripted and narrated "Supreme Court," the first film ever made inside the Supreme Court. This award-winning ABA production was exhibited at the Court for over a decade. Professor Baier's expertise lies in Constitutional Law, Civil Rights Litigation, and Appellate Advocacy. He was a Special Assistant State Attorney General in several U.S. Supreme Court and 5th Circuit cases, including the Louisiana Higher Education Desegregation Case. He served as Executive Director, Louisiana Bicentennial Commission, U.S. Constitution, 1987-91, and was selected as the first Scholar in Residence of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, 1990-92. He is the editor of the memoirs of Justice Hugo Black, Mr. Justice and Mrs. Black (Random House 1986), and of Lions Under the Throne: The Edward Douglass White Lectures of Chief Justices Warren E. Burger and William H. Rehnquist (Louisiana Bar Foundation, 1995). He has taught summer programs with Justice Harry A. Blackmun (Aix-en-Provence, France, and Berlin, Germany) and with Justice Antonin Scalia (Siena, Italy). For a sample of his writing see: The Court and Its Critics, Feb. '92, A.B.A.J. Professor Baier is a nationally published playwright-"Father Chief Justice": Edward Douglass White and the Constitution, which played at Louisiana's Old State Capitol during its Sesquicentennial, and Act III of which was published by the ABA (Litigation, Vol. 24, no. 4). He has several media credits, including "Court Reports," a film historiography of the Supreme Court of the United States in National Archives newsreels and a television production featuring Erwin N. Griswold, former Solicitor General and Dean of the Harvard Law School. He is nationally known for his use of media in law school teaching, "What Is the Use of a Law Book Without Pictures or Conversations," 34 J. Legal Ed. 619 (1984). The Silver Anniversary Fifth Edition of Baier's The Pocket Constitutionalist, with a Foreword by his former student and Louisiana Supreme Court Justice John L. Weimer, was published by Claitor's in 2003. Professor Baier is Vice Chairman of the Bill of Rights Section, Louisiana State Bar Association and Secretary of the Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society. The Louisiana Bar Foundation named Baier its Distinguished Professor 2004. The Tiger Athletic Foundation honored Professor Baier with its prestigious TAF Undergraduate Teaching Award for his teaching in the LSU Honors College, now in its eleventh year.